By Anuska Roy
Queer women are faced with multiple levels of biases that impact how their career trajectories are shaped. A lack of opportunity for queer women within prominent workplaces contributes to a hindered growth for their career paths. Workplaces are unable to understand and provide the necessary space to queer employees.
This not only shapes up a general sense of anticipation for queer women but also creates a myriad of obstructions for them to enter into workplaces. The prevalence of discriminatory behaviour towards queer women from colleagues and supervisors makes them apprehensive of entering newer areas of work.
Moreover, invasive questions that are triggering and uncomfortable situates them in a vulnerable position. This makes them fearful of approaching newer opportunities. Consequently, the emotional burden of having to explain incorrect behaviour to colleagues at workplaces creates exhaustion and burnout for queer women.
Existing Biases Hindering Access To Opportunities And Growth
For queer women, their workplace may often become a space of heavy triggers and prejudice. Stereotypical assumptions related to their sexuality lead to many unconscious biases being prevalent in everyday interactions as well. Consequently, these biases can take the form of discriminatory behaviour wherein employers to choose to restrict opportunity and space for them.
This makes it difficult for them to grow within their workplace and contributes to alienating them from the workplace culture. Moreover, discriminatory jokes or hyper-sexualization also contribute to a higher rate of sexual misconduct for queer women within workplaces. Without any DE&I advisory in place, workplaces create an unsafe environment for queer women that harms the way they move forward in their career paths.
Moreover, queer women also perceive themselves to be at a higher risk of sexual misconduct in the workplace. This is because the heteronormative ideas often push the perception that queer women can be “converted” to be heterosexual. Hence, queer women feel their sexuality makes them doubly vulnerable in their place of work.
Queer women are also at risk of outing by their colleagues and supervisors. Many queer women do not feel comfortable sharing their sexuality or gender identity. However, a lack of awareness and training makes them apprehensive of opening up to anyone within their workplace. This also creates a sense of isolation for them. This not only creates isolation for them but also impacts their work output.
Consequently, dissatisfaction with the work culture impacts productivity, which in turn impacts their career growth. Moreover, microaggressions in the form of remarks that hint at their sexuality or physical appearance also contribute to them feeling alienated from workplace culture and negatively impacting their career growth.
Lack Of Training And Awareness
Most workplaces fail to acknowledge intersectionalities that persist within marginalized gender groups. Hence, their D&I mandates only incorporate inclusive workplaces for cis-heterosexual women. This decreases visibility for queer women, and their sexuality happens to be erased.
Other times their identity is often centred around their sexuality. A lack of policies and processes that increase accessibility and visibility for queer women also impacts how they progress in their workplace. Bias training programs are an integral way to address unconscious biases that change into discriminatory behaviour for queer women. Moreover, having D&I advisories in place with a special focus on LGBTQIA+ inclusion is another integral way to help queer women progress within their career paths.
Diversity and inclusion advisories not only put processes in place that help organizations build more inclusive workplaces for queer women but also put measurement analytics that helps them understand if these policies are actually working. Moreover, these processes also help destigmatize the idea of sexuality and help leaders recognize the need for equity measures for marginalized genders.
D&I advisories also help workplaces build more collaborative endeavours that can help queer women feel connected to the organization. This not only helps them progress within their career path but also helps the organization understand the gap that makes queer women shy away from collaborative operations.
Conclusion
Queer women are faced with discrimination that not only points out their position as a woman but also points out their sexuality as a cause of stigma. This makes them uncomfortable within their workplaces. Negative interactions also shape their perception of workplaces in general. This leads to queer women stepping down from job opportunities or not approaching higher-level opportunities at all.
A lack of inclusive leadership also impacts how queer women perceive workspaces. If they feel unsafe and uncomfortable in a workplace due to being unable to reach out to a trusted supervisor, they automatically step down from their position.
Generalized stereotypes and cases of misconduct also lead to long-lasting trauma for queer women. This leads to them stepping away from their work-life for good at times. A lack of D&I advisories that help place preventive policies in place also creates an unsafe work environment for queer women. LGBTQIA+ inclusion not only helps organizations create a more diverse workforce but also combats the problem of queer women being unable to access opportunities due to their sexuality.